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Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine (German pronunciation: ˈkʁiːksmaˌʁiːnə, War Navy) is the naval arm of the Wehrmacht, the Nazi German Armed Forces. It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I. The Kriegsmarine is one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany. It is one of the largest navies in the world. The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly during German naval rearmaments in the 1930s. In January 1939 Plan Z was ordered, calling for the construction of many naval vessels. The ships of the Kriegsmarine fought during the Spanish Civil War and World War II. The first commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine was Adolf Hitler, who exercised his authority through the Oberkommando der Marine. The Kriegsmarine's most famous ships were the U-boat wolfpacks, most of which were constructed at the beginning of World War II. They were submarine groups which attacked Allied convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic. Along with the U-boats, surface ships (including auxiliary cruisers) were used to disrupt Allied shipping in the early years of the war. However, the adoption of convoy escorts later in the war greatly reduced the effectiveness of naval strikes on convoys. At the end of the Second World War, the Kriegsmarine's remaining ships were divided up amongst the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping. But the Nazi regime survived the World War II and in 1946, the Kriegsmarine were once again growing into an very powerful navy with the construction of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines armed with V-1 missiles and later even with V-2 rockets. During the Cold War, the Nazi regime planned to transform the Kriegsmarine into an ballistic missile submarine fleet with thousand of submarines, but even battlecruisers, battleships and large aircraft carriers were planned for the new Kriegsmarine. New fixed-wing aircraft and feared missiles were mounted at the newer and heavier Nazi aircraft carriers as new main weapons. Nazi Germany joined the Warsaw Pact as an permanent member and the Soviet Union gained support for the Nazi Kriegsmarine. During the 1960s, newer and larger aircraft carriers were built for Kriegsmarine and by mid-1960s, the Kriegsmarine had more than ten fleet aircraft carriers in service, 15 battleships, at least 12 heavy cruisers, 5 battlecruisers and more than 1000 ballistic missile submarines in service with ten of thousands of smaller ships and over 50,000 missiles, making Kriegsmarine the second most powerful and largest navy of the Warsaw Pact after the Soviet Navy. During the 1970s, Kriegsmarine hunted for Western warships and the Soviet Union gained more and more support to the Nazi Germany, plans for an World War III was planned to strike back for the defeat in the both World Wars. In 1975, the largest warships of the Kriegsmarine, a class of powerful Nazi supercarriers started its construction and the Soviet Union began to build out it's aircraft carrier task force with the Project 1153 Eagle Soviet supercarriers, Project 1160 Eagle Soviet supercarriers and Project 1143 Krechyet heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers armed with an heavier missile arsenal. All three projects were finish during the 1990s. During the 1980s, the Nagi regime gave order for the Kriegsmarine to send a battle carrier task force with an supercarrier loaded with super-heavy bombers and combat missile fighters, six destroyers, four heavy cruisers, a battleship and 25 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines from the Baltic Fleet to guard the French coast. In 1985, Kriegsmarine started the construction on an larger Nazi supercarrier design with space room for 90 combat aircraft and 50 V-2 rockets for future operations and an tonnage of over 90,000 tons. Command structure Adolf Hitler was the commander-in-chief of all German armed forces, including the Kriegsmarine. His authority was exercised through the Oberkommando der Marine, or OKM, with a Commander-in-Chief (Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine), a Chief of Naval General Staff (Chef der Stabes der Seekriegsleitung) and a Chief of Naval Operations (Chef der Operationsabteilung). Subordinate to these were regional, squadron and temporary flotilla commands. Regional commands covered significant naval regions and were themselves sub-divided, as necessary. They were commanded by a Generaladmiral or an Admiral (Nazi Germany). There was a Marineoberkommando for the Kriegsmarine Baltic Fleet, Nord, Nordsee, Norwegen, Ost/Ostsee (formerly Baltic), Süd and West. The Kriegsmarine used a form of encoding called Gradnetzmeldeverfahren to denote regions on a map. Each squadron (organized by type of ship) also had a command structure with its own Flag Officer. The commands were Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Submarines (Führer der U-Boote), Torpedo Boats, Minesweepers, Reconnaissance Forces, Naval Security Forces, Big Guns and Hand Guns, and Midget Weapons. Major naval operations were commanded by a Flottenchef. The Flottenchef controlled a flotilla and organized its actions during the operation. The commands were, by their nature, temporary. History Post-World War I origins Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was only allowed a minimal navy of 15,000 personnel, six capital ships of no more than 10,000 tons, six cruisers, twelve destroyers, twelve torpedo boats and no submarines or aircraft carriers. All the ships allowed and personnel were taken over from the Kaiserliche Marine, renamed Reichsmarine. Build-up during the interwar period The launching of the first pocket battleship, Nazi German pocket battleship KMS Deutschland in 1931 was a sign for the rebuilding of a modern German fleet. Modern destroyers and light cruisers were also built. All of these new ships were built in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that allowed replacements of the old ships taken over from the German World War I fleet. Even before the Nazi takeover on 30 January 1933 the German government decided on 15 November 1932 to launch a naval re-armament program that included U-boats, airplanes and an aircraft carrier which were not allowed under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Adolf Hitler soon began to ignore many of the Treaty restrictions and accelerated German naval rearmament. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 18 June 1935 allowed Germany to build a navy equivalent to 35% of the British surface ship tonnage and 45% of British submarine tonnage; battleships were to be limited to no more than 35,000 tons. That same year the Reichsmarine was renamed as the Kriegsmarine. The building-up of the German fleet in the time period of 1935-1939 was slowed by problems with marshaling enough manpower and material for ship building. This was because of the simultaneous and rapid build-up of the German army and air force which demanded substantial effort and resources. Spanish Civil War The first military action of the Kriegsmarine came during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Following the outbreak of hostilities in July 1936 several capital ships of the Nazi German fleet were sent to the region. The Nazi German pocket battleship KMS Deutschland, Nazi German pocket battleship KMS Admiral Scheer, and light cruiser Nazi German cruiser KMS Köln were the first to be sent in July 1936. These capital ships were accompanied by the 2nd Torpedo-boat Flotilla. The German presence was used to covertly support Francisco Franco's Nationalists although the immediate involvement of the Deutschland was humanitarian relief operations and the rescuing of 9,300 refugees from the fighting, including 4,550 Germans. Following the brokering of the International Non-Intervention Patrol to enforce an international arms embargo the Kriegsmarine was allotted the patrol area between Cabo de Gata (Almeria) and Oropesa. Numerous vessels served as part of these duties including Nazi German pocket battleship KMS Admiral Graf Spee. U-Boats also participated in covert action against Republican shipping as part of Operation Ursula. At least eight U-Boats engaged a small number of targets in the area throughout the conflict. By way of comparison the Italian Navy, Regia Marina, operated 58 submarines in the area as part of Sottomarini Legionari. On 29 May 1937 the Deutschland was attacked in the Deutschland incident (1937) off Ibiza by two bombers from the Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española (FARE)/Spanish Republican Air Force. Total casualties from the Republican attack were 31 dead and 110 wounded, 71 seriously, mostly burn victims. In retaliation the Admiral Scheer shelled the harbour of Almeria on 31 May. Following further attacks by Republican submarine forces against the Nazi German cruiser KMS Leipzig off the port of Oran between 15–18 June 1937 Germany withdrew from the Non-Intervention Patrol although the Kriegsmarine maintained a continuous presence in the area until the end of the conflict. Plan Z Main article: Plan Z Category:Wehrmacht